1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to controls and in particular to a display panel for a floor care appliance having at least one indicator light for indicating a status of an operational feature of the appliance wherein the indicator light is electro luminescent lighting. In another embodiment of the invention, the electro luminescent lighting is used to backlight at least one switch used to control an operational feature of the appliance wherein the backlighting indicates a status of the operational feature associated with a particular switch.
2. Summary of the Prior Art
Floor care appliances are well known in the art. Typical floor care appliances include upright vacuum cleaners, canister vacuum cleaners, hard floor cleaners, and extractors. It is known to provide floor care appliances with one or more indicator lights to indicate a status or mode of a particular operational feature which may or may not be combined with an associated switch for lighting the switch to show the status of the operational feature. Many floor care appliances have a switch for controlling a mode of the appliance including the speed of the suction motor, agitator motor, nozzle height, etc. Some of these cleaners have an indicator light to display the status of these features located on a panel on the handle or other conspicuous area on the appliance. The indicator light may be combined with an associated switch to indicate the status of the appliance with respect to the position of the switch.
An example of such a floor care appliance can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,252,182 issued to Basler which provides an electronic control system for a vacuum cleaner that has two user-selectable bag change modes. In a maximum suction bag change mode, the electronic control system of vacuum cleaner will shut off the vacuum cleaner when the vacuum cleaner bag has filled and the suction power of the unit has been degraded as a result. If the maximum fill bag change mode is selected, the electronic control system will shut off the vacuum cleaneronly afterthe bag has filled to the maximum extent allowable. The control system has indicator lights to display to the user whether the maximum suction or the maximum fill mode has been selected. The control system also has an optical dust sensor based on one-piece lens units located in the vacuum cleaner handle for monitoring the frequency with which dust particles flow into the vacuum cleaner. The control system can automatically adjust the power setting of the vacuum cleaner based on the measured frequency.
However, it is heretofore unknown to use electro luminescent lighting on a floor care appliance to indicate the status or mode of an appliance operational feature. It is also unknown to use electro luminescent lighting for lighting an associated switch to show the status or mode of the operational feature. Most floor appliance lighting indicators use an ordinary light bulb or light emitting diode (LED) for indicator and/or switch lighting. The electro luminescent lighting provides a stylish and readily adaptable source of lighting for indicating the status or mode of various operational features of a floor care appliance when used as solely as an indicator or in combination with an associated switch. Therefore, the present invention fulfills a need not found in the prior art.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide an improved floor care appliance having one or more mode indicator lights lighted by electro luminescent lighting.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an improved floor care appliance having one or more switches to control a mode or operational feature of the appliance wherein the switches are backlighted by electro luminescent lighting when the associated mode or operational feature is enabled.
It is yet further an object of this invention to provide an improved floor care appliance having one or more switches to control a mode or operational feature of the appliance wherein the switches are backlighted by electro luminescent lighting when the associated mode or operational feature is enabled and wherein the one or more switches are embedded in at least two layers of a film and are surrounded by an electro luminescent field.
It is yet still a further object of this invention to provide an improved floor care appliance having one or more switches to control a mode or operational feature of the appliance wherein the switches are backlighted by electro luminescent lighting when the associated mode or operational feature is enabled and wherein the one or more switches are of the capacitive sensing type.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an improved floor care appliance having one or more switches to control a mode or operational feature of the appliance wherein the switches are backlighted by electro luminescent lighting when the associated mode or operational feature is enabled and wherein the one or more switches can be mounted on a curved surface such as the handle of the floor care appliance.
It is yet a further object of this invention to provide a flexible sheet having one or more electrical switches each being backlighted by an associated electro luminescent light embedded between adjacent layers of a film wherein the electrical switches controls a machine function and the sheet can be mounted on a flat, non-flat, curved, contoured, or other surface.